Bulgaria will take over the rotating Presidency of the EU from 1 January 2018. Lilyana Pavlova, the minister for the Bulgarian Presidency, told EURACTIV.com about its priorities, which include security and migration, the Western Balkans and the future of cohesion policy.

The seasons are changing. As the weather gets better, Europe's migration crisis gets worse. In a year of critical elections, Malta brings its frontline Mediterranean experience to the leadership of the presidency of the European Union.

It's a time of crisis, global turbulence, and economic change. It's also a time of opportunity. On the first of January, for the first time, Malta took up the presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Highlights of the 2015 EuroPhilantopics event in Brussels. Jointly organised by BOZAR, DAFNE, EFC, EVPA and NEF, EuroPhilantopics is the annual event for foundations and EU institutions to come together and consider the challenges facing people and communities in the next 5-10 years. This year the theme was trust and how it can be levered to pave the way to a fairer society.

EU leaders agreed that 40,000 migrants would be relocated from Italy and Greece to other EU countries over the next two years. Another 20,000 would be resettled from outside Europe to EU member states,

“It's right for Britain to have this renegotiation and this referendum to address the concerns that the British people have about Europe and to make sure that the British people have the final say about whether we stay in a reformed EU or leave,” said British Prime Minister David Cameron, upon arrival to the EU Council summit on Thursday.

“We have a proposal for an emergency mechanism to relocate 40,000 asylum seekers. Syrians and Eritreans will be relocated from Italy and Greece to other European Union member states over a period of two years,” said EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos in Brussels on Wednesday.

The European Commission proposed a draft EU budget for 2016 of €143.5 billion euros on Wednesday (27 May). According to the EU executive, the budget aims to 'support the recovery of the European economy”. The funds will be used to create jobs and growth, to deal with migration more effectively, and to strengthen the EU's role as a global player.

“I am an undocumented immigrant, like many of the people here, and we are here to tell the European Parliament and the European Parliamentarians that the situation is a problem they created and they can solve it. So we want them to save these people that are dying in the Mediterranean sea.”

“We cannot accept that hundreds of people die when they try to cross the sea to Europe,” said European Council President Donald Tusk after a fishing boat capsized overnight off the Libyan coast, killing as many as 700 migrants.

EuroPhilantopics is the annual event for foundations and EU institutions to come together and consider the challenges facing people and communities in the next 5-10 years, with a view to collaborating on shared agendas and gaining more in-depth knowledge of issues, which they can then make use of when considering policy, strategy and funding in the coming years. EuroPhilantopics, which included sessions on sessions on migration, employment, the circular economy and the economics of change, took place during the European Foundation Centre’s 25th Anniversary week, from 3-7 November.